Zhaienhe Zhou

About Me

I am a first year PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan in Fall 2026, advised by Prof. Thatchaphol Saranurak and Prof. Euiwoong Lee. Before that, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), School of the Gifted Young, advised by Prof. Xue Chen.

My research interests broadly lie in theoretical computer science, especially in coding theory and graph algorithms. I also participate in competitive programming, winning a Bronze Medal (9th place) at the ICPC 2025 World Finals in Baku.

Previously, I was a research intern advised by Prof. Zeyu Guo (Ohio State University, Summer 2024), Prof. Xin Li (Johns Hopkins University, Autumn 2025), Prof. Thatchaphol Saranurak (University of Michigan, remote), and Prof. Danupon Nanongkai and Xinkai Shu (Max Planck Institute for Informatics).

Publications

In theoretical computer science, the author order is alphabetical by default.

Accepted

• Xin Li, Songtao Mao and Zhaienhe Zhou. Hardness and Algorithms for Batch LPN under Dependent Noise. Theory of Cryptography Conference (TCC 2026). cryptoeprint:2025/2164

• Xue Chen, Wenxuan Shu and Zhaienhe Zhou. Algorithms for Sparse LPN and LSPN Against Low‑Noise. 38th Annual Conference on Learning Theory (COLT 2025). arXiv:2407.19215
  • Wenxuan’s Presentation at COLT2025: video
• Zhaienhe Zhou and Zeyu Guo. Improved Decoding of Tanner Codes. IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT 2025). arXiv:2501.12293 Conference version
  • My Presentation at ISIT2025: slides
  • Awarded the USTC Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award (2026).

Preprints

• Thatchaphol Saranurak, Kaiyang Xie and Zhaienhe Zhou. Incremental Directed Minimum Cut by Dynamizing Gabow’s Algorithm. Manuscript, 2026. arXiv:2608.16382
• Shengtang Huang, Xin Li, Songtao Mao, and Zhaienhe Zhou. High-Rate Public-Key Pseudorandom Codes for Edit Errors. Manuscript, 2026. arXiv:2605.19402

Selected Awards & Honors

Competition

• Bronze Medal, ICPC World Finals 2025 Baku (9th place)
• Highest Honors, ICPC World Finals 2024 Astana (13th place)
• Gold medals x 3, ICPC Asia‑East Continent Final (2022 – 2024), including 5th place in 2024
• Gold medals, CCPC Finals (2025, 5th place)
• Gold medals x 6, ICPC Regionals (2022 – 2024), including 2nd place in ICPC Nanjing 2024
• Gold medal, CCPC Harbin Regional 2024 (2nd place)
• Bronze Medal, National Olympiad in Informatics 2021

Academic

• Silver Scholarship, USTC School of the Gifted Young (2023, 2024)
• Second Prize, National College Student Mathematics Competition 2023

Teaching

• Teaching Assistant, Foundations of Algorithms, USTC (Spring 2024)
• Competition Coach, TopsCoding Winter Course 2024

Miscellaneous

• Outside of research, I enjoy playing guitar and harmonica.
• I also enjoy classical music (mostly Romantic, e.g. Rachmaninoff and Chopin) and J-Rock.
• My Blog: blog-e.top includes some notes on algorithms (mostly in Chinese).
• I enjoy setting problems for competitive programming contests (some co-authored with friends).
  Here are a few of my favorites:
  • [USTCPC 2025] D. Algorithm Duel
  • [ICPC Hefei 2023] D. Balanced Array
  • [ICPC Hefei 2023] K. Campus Partition

Last updated: September 13, 2026